GALO: Is there a venue that you haven’t yet played at but you wish you could? Do you have a favorite one?

RS: I would like to play at the Village Vanguard one day. It’s a very prestigious club. I love the atmosphere of this venue and performing in it would be undoubtedly a dream come true. I also really like Jazz Gallery. This is another club in New York to which I often go to and I would be extremely happy if I could someday play there.

GALO: Do you ever play just for yourself?

RS: Yes! Often when I try to practice, I catch myself playing for myself, instead of concentrating on a technical problem. If I was able to control this bad tendency, I would probably be further along in my musical development.

GALO: Do you feel that you and your music are recognized and distinguishable in Poland? How about New York?

RS: Every time I come to Poland, I am pleasantly surprised how many musicians have heard of me. People I meet for the first time tell me that I greatly inspire them with my creativity, naming titles that specifically left an impression on them. I am honored by this. It’s a little worse with a wider audience. There’s an increasingly bigger group of fans who come to my concerts in Warsaw and Krakow. It’s harder for me to come into existence in other Polish cities. I spend a large portion of the year in New York, and therefore, I do not have as many possibilities to promote my creativity in other cities. In a sense, the experience for me is very similar in New York. At times I am shocked how many musicians have already heard of me or my compositions. Nevertheless, it isn’t easy to gather a large audience at concerts.

GALO: What are you currently listening to?

RS: Recently I was listening to the symphonies of Mozart and Beethoven. In the past, I could never convince myself to orchestral works from the classical time period. Only recently I was able to deeply feel their beauty. Listening to this type of music I pay attention to different elements than when listening to jazz. In the case of symphonies, it is much more important to follow the form [of the composition], which in turn requires an adamant amount of concentration. An instantaneous moment lacking in concentration can cause one to lose sight of an important element constructed in the piece, which can have a big impact on understanding the musical events.

GALO: Apart from being a jazz musician, you also dabble in writing articles on the subject matters of mathematics, physics and music, which appear in the magazine Top Guitar. From time to time you also teach courses on acoustics. Can you tell us more about these endeavors?  What do you particularly enjoy about them?

RS: Indeed, I consider a variety of topics contiguous with music, mathematics, and physics as very exciting. A lot of prominent physicists and mathematicians have devoted their time to such issues. One of the first was Pythagoras, who noted that there is a relationship between pleasant concord sounds and simple fractions. I became interested in these issues quite accidentally. My father once told me that since I already have a Master’s in music and a Master’s in physics, I should then go for my Doctorate degree combining these two fields. Not asking me for my opinion, my father bought me an entire pile of books devoted to these studies.

At first I wasn’t interested in reading these books. However, once by accident, I skimmed through one of them and came across an article on the dissonance theory according to Helmholtz. His theory answered a lot of questions that had bothered me for years. Almost immediately after this event, I read almost all of the books that my father had given me, and I began to treat this area of knowledge more seriously.

GALO: Do you think that you will ever put music on the back burner and pursue one of your other hobbies or perhaps return to physics?

RS: I’m only 29. A lot can still happen in my life and I can’t exclude the factor that music might someday become only my hobby. However, at the moment, there is no indication of this. I’m preparing myself at all possible measures to ensure that my entire professional activities are devoted entirely to music. I definitely do not plan to return to physics as my main area of expertise or profession.

GALO: In a 2006 interview for Wiadomosci Swidnickie [Swidnickie News], renowned Polish jazz musician Michal Urbaniak was quoted saying that “no one in Poland understands jazz.” Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?

RS: That’s a very bold statement and I wouldn’t treat it quite so literally. There are times when I too feel that Poles comprehend jazz music differently than Americans. The older generation of Americans was brought up on songs sung by Frank Sinatra and composed by Cole Porter or Gershwin. Jazz standards, therefore, aren’t considered abnormal to them. To them, these are just simply popular songs that were heard on the radio or in musicals. On the other hand, many young Americans were brought up listening to American hip-hop music, which also has many elements deriving from jazz.

Poles were brought up on entirely different music. It’s a lot harder for us to come to an understanding, or rather a certain feel, for American swing music, since popular Polish music (both modern and classic) in most cases does not ‘swing.’ However, this doesn’t absolutely mean that the reactions that the Polish listener experiences are more trivial. Jazz music has played a significantly important role in the lives of many generations of Poles.

GALO: What does jazz mean to you?

RS: For me, jazz is a way of expressing myself. From the first time I played in a jazz band, I knew that this form of expression really fits my personality. Jazz music changed me considerably as a person. It forced me to become more open, communicative, and honest.

GALO: You’ve finished an array of schools both for physics and music. Would you say that education is important and necessary when pursuing a creative career such as yours? Or is talent and ambition enough to go down that path?

RS: Music schools can be very helpful in education. Nevertheless, I don’t think that it is an absolute necessity. In my opinion, in the case of musical education, the ideal system is one that is structured around individual lessons based on a strong student-teacher relationship. Such a system existed for many centuries in numerous musical cultures around the world. Modern schools disrupt this relationship by introducing mandatory musical curriculum and group sessions. On many occasions, the student becomes only a number on a list. Still, this doesn’t change the fact that educational institutions are a great place for musicians from all areas of the world to meet and grow together, share experiences, and above all else, play together.

GALO: What’s next for Rafal Sarnecki?

RS: I am slowly starting to think about new musical projects. In addition to my strictly instrumental profession, I would like to create a band, in which instrument improvisations would be only a mere addition to a sung melody with lyrics. However, this doesn’t mean that I plan to neglect my work with my Polish quartet or with my New York sextet. I am in the process of organizing another concert tour. I think that the year 2012 will be very intense in terms of the number of concerts and recording sessions.

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